I was surfing over to Geek Dad at Wired and saw the coolest project that someone had posted. Wow. Being a "book nerd," this project really appeals to me. Not that I'm handy enough to actually put something like this together, but I'm glad to see that there is still some imagination left in the world.

Click here for a link to the GeekDad story.

Things like this make me happy that I have a kid. It's like having a second childhood, getting to see cool things like this. Before I had my son, I probably would have skipped over this link, but now, I'm fantasizing about building something similar for him. It's only fantasizing, though. I don't want to destroy a perfectly good bedroom with my feeble attempts to be handy. :)

I'm not known for my musical tolerance. I like what I like, which is often more on the rock/heavy side of the musical spectrum. As you can imagine, I have trouble with the typical bedtime CDs that I sometimes use to put my son to sleep. I think that if i hear the Kenny Loggins CD, Return to Pooh corner, one more time, I might lose it.

It's a great CD in the sense that it's pretty even volume throughout, and does have nice, soft, and (arguably) relaxing melodies that help get him to sleep. But what about me? I'm a ball of nerves after 3-4 songs, so it's having the opposite effect on me. Enter the perfect 'baby' gift for new parents: Rockabye Baby CDs!

Someone has taken popular rock bands and recorded their songs using some sort of xylophone/vibraphone thingy, and released tons of great CDs that can be used to lull the little ones to sleep at bedtime, with the added benefit of not driving me crazy! :)

Check out the site here to see all of the cool CDs that they've made. There are even some audio samples of some of their more popular CDs on the front page, to give you an idea of what they sound like (it may sound like kind of a weird concept, but believe me, they are pretty cool).

I'm excited about tonight's lunar eclipse, although I hope it's not going to be too cloudy in Austin to see things clearly. I have seen a couple of good links from both NASA and Space.com that highlight tonight's eclipse. I'm tempted to go buy a telescope just for this, but with my luck, it will be cloudy and I won't get to use it, so I'll hold off.

Here are the links:

Space.com's Lunar Eclipse Viewer's guide


NASA's Eclipse Page

It's been a while since I posted, and I figured I'd better get back in the habit before I put it down for good. I made a 'sort of' resolution to start and keep up with a blog, and although I haven't always posted as often as I like, I'm not going to let it discourage me from keeping it going, even if my posting is more sporadic than I had hoped.

The past week, I've been giving a lot of thought to all the work/shopping I need to do to get ready for our new baby in July. We're going to have to combine our office and guest room to make room for another nursery for the new baby, and because the rooms are so small at my house, it's going to be a feat of engineering to get all of the stuff crammed into one room. I've still got to find a futon and mattress (not enough room for the office stuff with a full bed), consolidate both my computer and my wife's computer to one desk (probably hers, since mine is busted), get everything in my huge desk cleaned out/thrown away, selling our old bed, moving the new futon into the room, painting the office... whew! I'm making myself tired just thinking about it.

Both of these were found on Geek Dad at Wired.

• A Modern Art Tribute to Stan Lee
  
• Daily LEGO: Mini-Scale Star Wars

Both of these links are great! The Stan Lee tribute has some amazing artwork based on comic book characters. The Daily Lego link is a collection of Star Wars themed lego creations. Both are definitely worth a look!

Here's a nerdy hobby that I never got into, but probably would have liked: Shortwave Radio. While I'm not too keen on listening to the regular radio these days, the thought of hearing a broadcast that is happening from the other side of the earth (and is not being broadcast via the internet) is pretty neat. The fact that this technology has been around for years is even more intriguing for me. I may have to look at how much these things cost and pick one up. It's never too late to pick up a new hobby!

found via Geek Dad

Most of the links I've found have to do with raising boys, but I did find a website dedicated to fathers with daughters. I guess I've been a little focused on the boy angle, since that's my experience as a parent so far (and we also just found out today that the little one on the way is a boy), so this is a link for you dads out there with daughters.