On another note I am back to blogging. My goal was to start again the first of the year, but wanted to do it with style and that meant waiting on my new wordpress theme. Which I need to finish polishing this week, but I’m anxious to start publishing my ramblings to the intertubes. So here you tubes. Cheers.

Love her.

I’ve got a feeling that 30 will be a good year for me. Here’s to thirty, flirty, and thriving.

On my drive to work today I saw my old Jeep, and for a brief moment I longed for having her back in my care—I drove that car for years and couldn’t believe it had been over a whole year that I sold that junker. It was quite a nostalgic moment and then I stomped on the gas in the GTI and quickly all the memories of that jeep quickly blurred into the back of my mind (I was lucky to if I ever got that jeep to freeway speeds).

When ever the boys over at Hoefler & Frere-Jones create a new typeface I want nothing more than to go and drop a few bones to add the beautiful little characters to my font library. But alas I realize I just don’t have that kind of cash. Dang it.

I’ve been very absent from my blog the past couple of months, and yet I have much news I need to post and update everyone (like leaving my freelance life and working for a large design firm machine).

It really is amazing to think that a year ago we were celebrating Theo’s birthday with sponge bob cup cakes and wondering what our little man would be like. He’s better than we could have ever hope for. He’s a real sport and so easy going. It’s tough not to to love the kid even with his constant drooling (no he’s not teething the kid just drools). Happy birthday Theo. I hope 2 is your best year yet.

I have to admit there’s still a lot of getting used to the second kid. I remember when we got Gem life was pretty upside-down trying to find normal again, and with Tuan (Theo) it hasn’t been much different.

We do have a good times though, and here’s some evidence (yes it’s yet another photo and video of my kid, but they’re cute).

And a video of Gem’s ABCs (bless her heart she really can sing them just she gets on camera and I think half the alphabet goes out the window).

Nothing too exciting for our July 4TH—BBQ with great friends and neighborhood pyrotechnics. Both Gem and Theo had the time of their lives (Gem was in heaven riding bikes and scooters down the sidewalk).

Growing up I was very fortunate (still am) to have a great father. He has done so much for me over the course of my life and I could never say thank you enough. Today as I was thinking back on the many great things he’s done for me one of my favorites is when he became my little league baseball couch because no other team in Pleasant View wanted me (or the other dozen looser kids in the neighborhood). I’ll never forget how he coached our crap team that summer and with his positive coaching and constantly telling us, “it’s just a game” and “we’re just here to have fun” he turned our little team of misfits and untalented kids into the team to beat. We didn’t loose a single game that summer and I know 100% of that was because of my dad.

The photo above is from one of the many fishing trips he took us on, and even though I don’t necessarily like to fish now I certainly enjoyed the trips with him and my brothers (FYI: in the photo the blond kid on my left is not my Brother it’s my cousin TJ). Rodney you are the worlds greatest daddy-o.

On another note I love my kids and even though they are monkeys most of the time and I do love them. They both make me really proud and I hope I’m being as good a father as my Dad is. This video is of the 2 monkeys coming home from church. Every Sunday Gem insist on jumping on this big metal plate, and now she’s got Tuan in on it too. Somewhere in their monkey hearts I think they’re wishing me a happy father’s day.

“I have done gift cards for Target that are in stores nationwide and animations for Nickelodeon that run 24 hours a day worldwide on cable TV,” Melinda Beck, an illustrator who is based in Brooklyn, wrote in an e-mail message to Google rejecting its offer. “Both of these jobs were high-profile and gave my work great exposure but both clients still paid me.”

Maybe it’s time to give bing a try.

Japanese photographer Shinichi Maruyama, now living in New York, has created some stunning images. It’s almost like he’s created traditional Japanese/ Chinese calligraphy only instead of on paper they’re in mid air. The photo of how he creates some of the images is just as amazing as the works themselves. I wouldn’t mind owning one of his prints. Really amazing.

We both thought the Carmen typeface looked smart and would work perfect for the phrase “Did you think to pray”. The print comes in loads of colors and both Susan and I have discussed doing a limited edition larger print (think poster size), but first I guess we’ll see how is sells.

If you’re looking to bring a little “holy spirit” into your home head over to Susan’s store.

I think just about every guy has a thing for a mustang once in his life. Mine happened after that show with Nicolas Cage and Angie Pit (Gone in 60 Secs), but it lasted only for a fleeting moment. Well the team over at FirstBorn Multimedia have come up with a pretty amazing site to help sell the 2010 Ford Mustang.

One of the nice things about the site is the size. As people’s computer screens get bigger and wider it’s a tough call as a web designer—how do you create a website that looks good on a laptop and also on a 24 inch screen? Most websites today are built at 960 pixels wide, and even though the Mustang site is the same width it feels much bigger than that thanks to it’s large graphics and the great use of background images.

Did I also mention the site’s a 100% Flash? You can checkout the site yourself by clicking here.

I’ve never been a fan of Rockband (I prefer to play the real guitar), and when it comes to video games I’m more of a “shoot ‘em up” save the world from aliens type of gamer. Nonetheless I thought this promo video for the new Beatles edition of Rockband was pretty great (and who doesn’t love the Beatles). I really liked the mixture of 2D animation with the 3D layered depth. It’s very anime meets the Gorillaz.

Just when you think no one reads your crummy blog you find out that Aunt Marla does. Of course I see the stats and I know there are people out there on the big ‘www’ who read my blog (whoever is in Stockholm, Sweden, Hello), but most the time you can’t put a face to the numbers. Well yesterday at a family BBQ Susan’s Aunt Marla told me she’s a faithful follower of my weblog. And since today is her birthday I want to electronically wish her a Happy Birthday. Happy Birthday Marla!

Anyway, I get a lot of traffic from Adobe’s exchange, and I thought why not try and get those sells directly.

So my apologies if you come to my site to view photos of my kids (sorry dad) or if you come to the site for my other posts, forgive me for looking a bit like digital car lot. I’ll continue to post about family, design, life, and such, but there’s now going to be a few flash based stock projects for sale mixed in.

These past couple of days we’ve been letting Gem walk out to the bus all by herself, and she’s pretty proud of herself. Today is her last day of preschool for the school year. Congrats Gem! We love you kiddo.

Anyway, thank you MTV for introducing me to this guy. Ever since my days in Taiwan I’ve been a pretty big fan of Mandarin Pop, and it’s been a while since I’ve discovered some one new. This was my favorite video that would come one.

CHORUS:
要感謝這小小蟲給我機會
I want to thank this small insect for giving me this opportunity
這是我初次嘗到戀愛滋味
This is my first taste of love
感覺好奇怪　好像　傷害了誰
It feels weird, similar to harming someone
或許我太壞　把小蟲摔下來　去換你的愛
Or maybe it’s because I’m bad, throwing down the insect and exchanging it for your love

Long story short a while back I was outside in our yard and started to dream up a plan to build a backyard office space, and since then have been searching for a perfect solution. When I saw this one I thought it was pretty close. I love the sunken space and with the glass bulb top it’s pretty futuristic. I could totally see myself walking out back to work every morning, and in winter it’d be pretty sweet covered in snow (snow cave).

Found the photos here: iwan.com.

The other day the kids and I hung the hammock for the first time this year. You’d think a hammock would be quiet time and relaxing, and Tuan totally gets the idea of the hammock (he just wanted to fall asleep next to me), but Gem on the other hand can’t seem to lay still long enough for me to snap a photo of her and Tuan together. She’s always climbing up to the hooks of the hammock, jumping down, and swinging until she falls out. Very good times, well until the last time when Gem jumped and took Tuan with her and he came up with a face full of dirt.

When I held Gem it was a really good feeling. She just busted out crying and held tight. One of those rare moments you get where you truly know your loved. But after all the flights and airports being photographed is not what you want. So please forgive the tired greasy look.

During the lunar new year this place is crawling with thousands of people, but our journey was during the off season and consequently it was strangely quiet. All along the path way to the pagoda (which is actually more of a cave (I think there’s something lost in translation there) there are vender stalls which the majority were empty, but the evidence of thousands of people hiking the trail and sleeping along the trail are totally visible (like in most parts of asia people just through their trash all of the place—Imagine Yellowstone, Zion canyon, or Yosemite with trash dumped everywhere and you get the idea). Despite the trash though and the stir fried dog it was amazingly beautiful and a great chance to see more than just he city.

We’re home now and I’ll do another post about that soon but wanted to get our last day of the trip up before too much time passed.

We went back to the temple of literature the other day with Tuan and the other adoptive families traveling with us. One of the things we’ve discovered with Tuan lately is that he’s a narcoleptic the minute we get in a moving vehicle. I’m starting to think the plane ride home might not be so bad.

It’s been a few days now with Tuan and he’s still loving mom best, but he’s starting to warm up to me more and more. Tonight while we were out walking I asked him if I could hold him and he got a big smile on his face and hid behind mom (he was afraid I was going to grab him).

All and all he’s been a great kid. I really can’t say enough good about his orphanage/ nanny and how on target he is with other kids his age. He can play on his own, flip through books, and even use the TV remote all on his own (I think they had him pretty much potty trained too, but we’re not risking that one). He is very sweet and cuddly. If he wasn’t a whopping 24 lbs I’d say Susan’s got it easier than I did with Gem (carrying little Gem around for 3 weeks was cake where she weighed 17 lbs). Anyway, we’ve been in the hotel room quite a bit the past few days, but hopefully tomorrow we’ll start sight seeing again.

Here’s some information about the trip you might want to know. We are here with 3 other adoptive Families who are adopting through our adoption agency (Pearl S. Buck International). From Tuan’s orphanage there are 2 kids. Tuan and Chau (to be named Morgan) being adopted. The other little girl being adopted is from another orphanage around Hanoi.

We pulled up to the POJ (I have no idea what that stands for but it’s the government entity that we have our giving and receiving ceremony (G&R) at). The kids were already there waiting outside on the grounds with their care givers.

Tuan’s orphanage is pretty unique. It’s part of a larger women’s correctional facility (I don’t think it houses major offenders mostly drug and prostitution related crimes), but we do know that because of this the ratio to care givers is much higher than your typical orphanage (2 to 1 it seemed compared to Gems 10+ to 1). Women who want to be involved with the the orphanage go through training and then become part of the staff and care givers at the orphanage.

The photo above is Tuan and his nanny. She told us that she’s been Tuan’s nanny ever since she became part of the program, which was about 2 months after Tuan had been left at the orphanage gate. All the photos that we’ve received before travel usually had Tuan being held by this women. As you can imagine the two of them are extremely close. He held on to her the whole time we had to wait around. I don’t think I can express enough my gratitude for this women, and how lucky we are to have had her to care and mother our son while we’ve had to wait to make him ours.

Above is POJ building. The G&R is pretty uneventful and having to sign papers and such I needed to put the camera down.

After the G&R we went outside and of course had to wait a few minutes for more paper work to be finalized. This photo is extremely awkward as the families wait with much anticipation and the Nannies dread the turn over. It’s was really difficult. You wanted nothing more than to go up and hug the nannies and express your gratitude, but cultural and language barriers held us back.

The transition of course hasn’t been the smoothest. Tuan has cried a bit but not near the amount Gem. I have yet to hold him as Susan won’t give him up for the life of her. Which is fine by me right now. Having had Gem attach to me and then be physically attached to me for 3 weeks I will be happy to be the supportive parent (though it has it’s headaches too). Anyway I just wanted to share some of the details. The next few days we’ll be mostly in the hotel room working on getting Tuan attached to us (there’s nothing worse then taking a kid around and having him reach out for every brown woman he sees).

And finally “Happy Birthday Gem”. I really wish we were at home with you to celebrate. I feel like a terrible parent having missed half of your 4 birthdays. I’ll make it up to you with a car on your sweet sixteen.

Yesterday was quite the experience going out to Tuan’s orphanage. All I can really say is that if your kid’s going to grow up in an orphanage Tuan’s is top notch. He is loved by so many care givers and nannies.

It was really fun to see our little boy, but just as we thought he wanted nothing to do with us. Which actually took a lot of pressure off and allowed us to enjoy being around him and all the other orphanage kids. It was a very good day. Tomorrow he’ll be ours.

We have yet to meet our son. Tomorrow morning we’re actually going to head out to the orphanage. We’re very excited even though our Agency rep. said yesterday that he doesn’t let anyone hold him except his nanny (here we go again, Gem was the same way).

Anyway, here are a few photos of our morning trip to the “temple of literature”.

As far as songs from the Concords this one is my favorite. Maybe it’s because Murray sings. Also you’ll notice when you play the video that there’s a new video player. Yes that’s right I went a head and built a new one for the FlashDen. It’s available for purchase (finally, they take some time to get files published).

Just wrapped this project. VitaBrevisFilms is the video/ motion studio of Skylar Nielsen photography. They do some pretty fancy video work and I have to admit that it was really nice to work with everybody there. See it live on the WWW here.