A Star Is Born!

Tonight was really a special night.  My daughter Abby sang in her spring music concert.  It is the culmination of a whole year of voice lessons and practice.  I was really blown away by Abigail and her peers tonight.  What a bunch of talented young ladies and men.  I am not always the type that goes in for music and theater, but when it is good I really enjoy it.  Except for the sweaty five year old bouncing on my lap for an hour and a half I would have been content to listen further.

I am totally impressed by the level of awe all of these kids hold for their teacher Phoebe Madden.  She really is an incredible singer and teacher.  Her fantastic show tonight was proof positive.  Of course I'm here mostly to brag about my own daughter!  Abigail played three roles tonight.  She sang her own solo, which included a small acting piece, she accompanied her friend, and it just so happens that she wrote the lyrics and the music for the song she accompanied.



Now I don't know much about music, but I know enough to know that a kid who can pull that all off is got something going for her.  The thing is that Abby seems to do it all with such ease.  She really enjoys every second of it, and I am so happy to see her truly in her element enjoying herself so much.  God knows she doesn't get it from me.  I'm afraid to even go near a stage! Here is a video of Abby performing "Wouldn't It Be Lovely".  Sorry for the small aspect ratio - Abby's dad can't remember which way to hold his phone while taking video..ughh.

To my Abby, I love you, I am so proud of what you can do, and with how well you hold it all together with so much grace and poise.  I am truly humbled to be your father.


Love,

Your Wacky Dad

Purple Power In Rhode Island!

     I'd like to start this post by saying just how saddened I am to hear about the devastation that has been wreaked upon so many families in Oklahoma.  Why does it always have to be children who are hit by this kind of disaster.  My thoughts are with the many families who have instantly had there lives turned upside today.  I can't begin to imagine how they must feel.

"The Crew" at the completion of the 2nd Annual Karen Petty
Double Century!

     As many of my readers know one of my intense passions (one of many) is fighting against Pancreatic Cancer.  I got involved when I lost a very close friend to the disease 3 years ago, and then lost another 1-1/2 years ago. I am deeply committed to fighting this disease, and have made it one of my missions in life to see it destroyed.  I have brought the fight to this disease on 2 fronts.  The first is a 200 mile, one day bicycle ride  in honor of my close friend Karen Petty who was taken by the disease in 2010.  The ride brings me from her home in West Warwick to her cabin in New Hampshire.  We raise funds for the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network every year, and the ride has raised on the order of $35,000 or so at this point.  The ride really transcends fundraising though. Quite simply it is my way of duking it out with Pancreatic Cancer.  As a former Marine it is natural for me to want to fight and win.  It doesn't matter how long the battle takes, but accomplishing the mission goes without question.  For that one day on the bike I am somehow in the ring with Pancreatic Cancer in my own way.  Each mile I tick off, each hill I climb, each cramp I push through, is one more chink in the armor of Pancreatic Cancer. It feels tremendous to find a way to actively beat the hell out of this disease.  It is also extremely important that I honor Karen's family on this day as well.  They are truly like brothers, sisters, aunts, and uncles to me.  I grew up in a small family, and Karen's family is one big extended family to me.  I love being able to show them just how much they mean to me, and how much Karen meant to all of us.

The second way that I have brought the fight to this disease was to become involved in the Rhode Island affiliate of the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network.  I realized early on that if I was going to be successful in killing this disease that I needed to be on a team that was committed to it as deeply as I am.  I found that team in the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network.  I got a letter from a local affiliate member in the mail inviting me to their first awareness event that they were running called Purple Light.  They lit the RI Statehouse up in purple and had some speakers at the event.  I met the key players that night and the rest was history.  I signed on as the volunteer event coordinator less than a month later, and 5 months later we ran our first Purple Stride Rhode Island.  This is our signature fundraising event.  Our headquarters was actually a little nervous about letting such a young affiliate take on a Purple Stride with so little time to prepare, but the will and desire was there.  They set our fundraising goal at $50,000 and 500 participants.  My goal was $100,000 and 1000 walkers, go big or go home I thought.  What did "Little Rhody" produce?  $130,000 and 1500 participants.  WOW!  I knew we were really on to something.  You see I believe that Rhode Island is unique.  There is no other place that has the "Rhode Island effect".  We are so small, and connected that we are the place to grow the perfect team to defeat this disease. In 2012 we tickled the $200,000 mark.  This year headquarters set our goal at $200,000.  I felt we might be able to stretch that to $220,000. 

Purple Stride RI 2013

We blasted our goals out of the park and are just under $230,000 with 1800 engaged participants on event day.  Rhode Island has blasted onto the scene of what I feel is a nationwide grass roots movement in the fight against this disease.  I believe Rhode Island's compact nature, much like the Marine Corps makes us nimble, quick, and fierce.  The perfect spearhead.  When I started this fight I felt like I was alone in the battle.  I was committed to winning against the odds, but I knew those odds were very long.  In three short years I am on a team with my fellow Rhode Islanders that is 1800 strong and is absolutely and unequivocally out to kick Pancreatic Cancer straight in the ass.  I cannot tell you how proud I am to be a part of this team.  I know in my heart and bones that this nationwide movement created by the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network is going to sweep this disease away and make it nothing but a bad memory.  I cannot wait!

Purple Power!

Wacky Dad!

My Aging Daughters!

It appears that my days of being the center of my two older daughters attention are quickly waning. The other night Abby went to her first movie with friends. It was actually quite a scene. We jumped in the truck and drove to the nearest Showcase Cinema which is where I thought Abby's friends were going to meet us. We were a couple of minutes late so I was surprised when Abby came back out of the theater to tell me her friends weren't there yet. No problem I figured, they must be there somewhere.  She checked again, no dice. Then she says "this is the Showcase near the Warwick mall right"?  My reply uhhhhh, nope.

She jumps in the truck and we drive as fast as my piece of junk 1996 Chevy truck will carry us, I think we broke the sound barrier, and I get her to the other theater in about 5 minutes. She ran into the theater and I got the obligatory text -" I found them". Phew!  I returned early for the pickup two hours later and sat outside for 15 minutes before the appointed pick up time of 9:02. Not sure where that time estimate came from because the girls didn't emerge from the theater until about 9:20. Oh well, at least I was in the posh cab of my old Chevy. The FM/Cassette player really rocks. It was all worth it though because Abby thoroughly enjoyed the movie and the experience alone with her friends. I really am glad to see her growing up as a young adult, but I'm going to miss my baby! I had to include this picture from the next day of Abby wearing her 3D glasses. Little goober!

Love,

Wacky Dad

Circle Of Life - By My Wacky Daughter

Ok maybe it's just me, but I swear to God that I nearly pee'd in my pants watching this video that my daughter made tonight.  Ailey is so quiet in public that it is hard to believe that she is capable of these kind of escapades, but I swear she is a little comedian.  She is using an app on her 5th generation Ipod 5, called Video Star to create these videos.  She has the same sick sense of humor that I have, but the little booger is just way funnier than her dad will ever be.  You have to see this!  



Enjoy and share!  Ailey would love to go viral on this one!


Proudly,

Ailey's Wacky Dad

Free Apps I Can't Live Without!

Ok I am about to expose myself for the geek that I am.  In the past year or so I have become totally obsessed with what today's smartphones and tablets have brought to the table with some of the amazing apps that are available.  I am an android fan, but all of my favorite apps are available for Apple, Android,  and in some cases even all of you Blackberry holdouts out there.  I am going to list five apps that I use on a daily basis, although I may have to write more than one blog post on the subject - there are way more than five I use every day, but perhaps I might survive without those!  Ok, here goes.

Pulse for Android and Apple has quickly become my favorite news gathering app.  It is totally customizable, and you can bring news in from a plethora of sources including "social news" such as articles your friends might be sharing on Facebook.  It is amazing to be able to press the icon button for Pulse on my phone and have articles available to me, on every subject that I find relevant in my life.  From Wall Street Journal, to Lifehacker, pulse pulls in all of the news I love, and displays it in a totally readable format on my 4 inch Android screen.  Give this app a try and I guarantee you'll be totally hooked!

Pocket for Android and Apple is another app I've come to rely on.  Have you ever done a web search on your phone and been totally annoyed at how small the text displays on your screen.  I used to just give up, or wait until I got to a desktop to read up on my interests.  Not so when you install Pocket.  When you find an article simply hit the share button in your mobile browser and share the page to Pocket.  This automatically shoots the article straight into Pocket.  Here is where the magic happens.  It takes the text in the article and transforms it into a totally readable format susimilar to Kindle or Pulse.  You instantly saved your article and made it available on every device you own with the Pocket app installed.  Brilliant!  My 9 year old daughter uses this app from her iPod touch all of the time to save articles relevant to her school projects.  Another awesome feature within Pocket is the ability to let Pocket do the reading for you.  Simply hit the menu button, hit the play button, and Pocket narrates the whole article for you.  In this busy world of driving from one place to the next, it is totally great to be able to continue learning and discovering even while on the move.  Example : The other day my daughter Abigail informed me that she hurt her shoulder at school and the school trainer said she had a shoulder subluxation.  I had no idea what that was, so I Googled it, found an article, zipped it into Pocket, and then let Pocket do the talking.  By the time I got home Abby and I were experts on shoulder subluxation. She's fine btw :). Totally love this app.

This is a new app for Apple and Android that I discovered while searching Google Play one day.  I am unfortunately on an older Android phone that is far from state of the art, and that includes the camera.  One of these days I will upgrade, but I just can't justify doing it right now while this old G2 is still getting the job done.  Pixlr Express has breathed new life into an aging smartphone camera for me.  Basically this app is like having Photoshop for your Android or Apple product.  I use this app to take all of my photos now.  Simply start the app, take your photo, and choose from a multitude of editing options. My favorite is "auto-fix" which basically adjust the color, brightness, and contrast levels automatically.  Incredibly almost every time you hit auto fix the app generates a much more pleasing picture than you started with.  You can also crop, fix red eye, and about a zillion other things.  The great thing is that when you finish editing you can share that photo staright to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc. with the click of a button.  Love it!

Dropbox
Click to open your account!

I can't say enough about this app.  Dropbox has literally changed the way I view computer file storage.  I'm sure you've all heard of the "cloud" by now.  Dropbox is cloud computing at its best.  Simply open a drop box account, download the app to your device, android, iphone, desktop, mac, etc. and you instantly have access to whatever files you store in your drop box on every device you own, or on the web.  Best thing about it is that you don't have to worry about losing data.  It is safe and sound out there in the cloud.  Forget about memory sticks, this makes them obsolete.  I started using Dropbox for work, but use it now to share folders with friends, family, fellow volunteers, etc.  Yes, you can add users of your choice to certain folders that you would like to share information with.  I am not going to do this app any justice trying to explain it, so just open an account and plug and play. You'll love it!

I have saved the absolute best for last. Evernote for Iphone, Android, Windows, and Mac has totally changed the way I do business.  I am a project manager for a general contractor.  I am always running multiple jobs at the same time.  This means that I need access to tons of information for different jobs.  Up until 3 months ago when I began using Evernote, I used to lug a giant bin full of file folders with me wherever I went.  I also had a notebook that was filled with an abominable amount of scratched notes, etc.  It was all a recipe for a lot of sleepless nights!  Evernote instantly changed that within a week of using it.  I am able to electronically save all of the information I need within Evernote Notebooks.  After you create a named notebook you can fill it with notes.  Each note can carry text, multiple file attachments, photos, pdfs, word files, excel files, the sky is the limit.  So when I am out on the jobsite now I can click into Evernote, pull up the proper Notebook, and instantly have access to all of my specifications, customer selections, etc.  As with Dropbox, all info is in the cloud and you can share notebooks with others who have an Evernote account.  Our company has recently adopted Evernote company wide and will be storing all of our documents, notes, etc.. electronically.  I am excited to see what this does for productivity.  No more searching through crappy folders for a piece of paper that might be there.  Simply open the job notebook, run a search for the info your seeking, and voila, there it is.  Within Evernote notes you can shoot pictures, dictate verbally, make checklists, tables, etc.  If you have to spin a lot of plates at work or at home Evernote is the perfect solution to hold it all down.  5 Stars!!!

I hope you go on to try some of these apps out and enjoy them as much as I do.  Have fun!


Geekily Happy,


Wacky Dad